I'm a country girl at heart and my next house will be a farmhouse for. Toilet paper roll deco. Hello my blog friends! I'm so pumped to share a project I finished today! It's simple, cheap, quick, and fall-y (yes, that is a word). Anyway... I've been diligently collecting these for what seems like forever: Why? So I could do projects like these: [Side note: please pin from the original source so the credit goes to the right person! But I also love projects involving trees/branches like these: Then, I saw this yesterday and even though it's not made from toilet paper rolls, I thought, hmm.... color behind the toilet paper rolls?
So basically... What you need: 1. 3. How to do it: 1. 2. 3. 4. 4. 5. 6. It's so.. fall. And I love that I used things I already had in my craft stuff and I recycled toilet paper rolls! Would it be bad to keep it up all year? Update: here are some more pictures that I took in better lighting! Looking for more toilet paper projects? Ultimate Guide to Recycled T-Shirt Crafts" You probably have a favorite T-shirt. You know the one you've worn until it's holey and ragged. Maybe it's from your first concert or your favorite vacation spot. Maybe it's your team's old logo, or a college favorite from decades ago.
Either way, you can't bear to part with it. Unfortunately, your family also can't bear to be seen with you when you're wearing it. The flip side is that you probably also have a drawer full of T-shirts that you never wear. You know the ones -- they have some corporate logo on them, so you never really wear them out. A great compromise for all those T-shirts is to recycle them.
This article will show you just a few of the many crafts you can create from your recycled T-shirts, from pillows to rags to rugs. So before you sneak off and throw away your family's aging T-shirts, consider the crafting potential. Wall decoration from thrift shop. Thrift Shop Hot! What to look for right now.... In my last post I shared some tips for shopping thrift shops. Now I'm going to share with you some items commonly found at thrift shops that are great for upcycling into swanky home decor and crafts.
These items are great because not only are they inexpensive, but they are very much in style as current home decor. What should you be looking for right now? 1) Silver-plated Serving TraysI always see lots of silver-plated trays and platters when I go thrifting, and they're usually inexpensively priced from about $1 to $5 each. Pretty wall display image via Apartment Therapy 2) Vintage ScarvesSometimes sold by the bag-full, vintage scarves are abundant at thrift shops and also cost next to nothing. 3) Picture FramesI always check out the picture frames at thrift shops. *Check out my other blog post, Creative Uses For Chalkboard Paint for more chalkboard ideas and a recipe for how to make your own chalkboard paint!
Vintage globe lamps. Rugs out of scrap. Step 1: Fabric Scraps Gather up a variety of fabric scraps. For this type of look, all patterns and colors work together in the end. We used a combination of ones from sample books and some panels that were cut out of other upholstery weight fabric remnants. All panels for rugs measured either 12x12 or 9x12 with serged edges. Lamp. Scrap Table. Normally, laminating a lot of timber together is done with powerful bar or pipe clamps and a lot of glue. However, those clamps are expensive, and you need a big, perfectly level workbench to get things to align right. In the absence of these tools, we used a slightly less rigorous but no less strong method using screws and threaded rods. The first step is to prepare your lumber. We cut it to random widths, meaning the bottom was going to be irregular, as seen in the introduction photos. Once you've ripped up a big pile of wood, run some 60-80 grit sandpaper over both sides to remove loose dirt, paint, and grit, which will inhibit the glue bond.
Continue on in this way, staggering seams and varying the wood so no pieces that are alike end up directly next to one another. This method has its weaknesses; namely, the thing will tend to sag, bow, and cup over time since there are no connectors that go all the way through the table top. Road Sign Stools. Given a heavy, yet healthy, obsession with road signs, I created these stools for my new apartment. They use a simple metal-bending technique to turn down the sharp edges of the signs and simultaneously brace the legs. You can see some of my other projects that use signs and this bending technique here: and here: I got my signs at the surplus pile at the state highway engineer's yard.
Aluminum signs are very hard to recycle because the coating on the signs is expensive and difficult to get off, therefore making them unprofitable to melt down. Old signs are sometimes just thrown in a big pile and forgotten about . . . all you need to do is ask. Don't steal signs. All the wood was found 2" x 4" scrap that I milled down to about 1-1/4" square. You will need these materials: Road signs Approx. 16' of wood per stool 3" drywall or wood screws #10 washers wood glue sandpaper. TURN A SHOPPING CART INTO A CHAIR. My son’s high school, in Hall County, Georgia has a tradition for seniors on yearbook day. Not only do they receive yearbooks first, but they also get to bring their own chair to sit in on the gym floor, instead of sitting on the bleachers with the rest of the student body.
It is not uncommon to see “chairs” such as traditional rockers, lawn chairs, even recliners. However, several students make their own. That is what my son chose to do. The next day, my son set out to find a cart in decent shape…not an easy task. So, in a couple hours, we turned the shopping cart into an awesome senior chair. Materials needed: 1. (Re)Building a bed foundation. Door table. Zig Zag Structure - Cardboard Chair. This will take you through making the basic structure, you can make whatever you want out of it. The pictures (and notes) do most of the explaining. The first layer will need 3 strips of card, one longer piece to create the zig-zag and two 'sandwich pieces' Mark out and score your longest piece at 42mm intervals on each side, make sure to stagger the lines so that when scored it will fold up properly (fig.2) Take one of your other pieces and mark out and glue it (fig.3) Now carefully glue down the zig-zag piece, you may need to use pins or tape to hold it while it dries.
After about 10 minutes you can glue the second sandwich piece on top. You can continue to add as many layers as you need (fig.5) you can make this stuff in big sheets and cut it to the right size later, or you can cut out the shapes you want and build them up layer by layer. Scrap Armchair. Armchairs are tough. It is awfully difficult to get the arms integrated, the structure sexy, and the ergonomics tight. Working with the nice folks over at the ReBuilding Exchange (www.rebuildingexchange.org), nestled by the banks of the Chicago River, I put together these armchairs over the last few weeks.
Each has a pine frame of salvaged 2" x 4"s and a seating surface made of old maple flooring. Compact, materially efficient, and handsome enough for the living room, you can slap together a pair of these in a weekend, adapting the design to whatever wood you have on hand. I finished mine with a couple of coats of non-toxic, all-natural tung oil, giving the wood a hand-rubbed glow that's easy to refresh as it ages. You will need these materials for each chair: You will need these tools: Bandsaw, jigsaw, or circular saw Chopsaw Table saw Router Random orbital sander Drill/driver Chisel Hammer Assorted bar clamps.
Leg of Books. Materials: Books Threaded Rods (a.k.a. all thread) T-Nuts Iron Strap Nuts (sized to the all thread) Screws Forstner Bit Twist Bits Tools: Drill Press Small Sledge Hammer (3-5 lb) Wrench Screw Driver Sources: We got most of our books from the local library, which sells books they no longer plan to circulate. For the most part, we didn't look at the titles, but we did buy the thickest books we could find. I hope this is obvious to you, but you are going to "ruin" the books for this project, so probably a good idea to use books you don't want to read. All of the other tools and materials could be found at a local home improvement store. I used 3/8" all thread 36" long, so it follows that the nuts and the t-nuts were also 3/8".
Floor Table. My current apartment, a pre-war building in Chicago, has hardwood floors. I don't know how old they are, but they have certainly borne many years of use. Recently confronted with a stack of salvaged oak flooring, I put two and two together: a coffee table that lifted the floor up, transposing the surface into a new form. The floor boards were laminated into a solid piece, taking advantage of their tongue-and-groove construction, then mounted to a modern, X-shaped base that would stabilize the top and support plenty of weight. The top was cleaned and re-coated with a hard-wearing polyurethane, and the old-growth base was hand-rubbed with linseed oil for a glowing, penetrating finish.
Quick and lightweight, this recycled table is at home on hardwood or concrete. As long as the wood is salvaged, the materials will cost only a few dollars -- a little finish, a few dollops of glue, and a handful of screws. You will need these materials: You will need these tools: Scrap Adirondack Chair. Summer's over and the weather is crisping up, but it's not too late to spend some time lazing on the deck in the sun. These chairs are a modern take on the rustic Adirondack chair, stripped down to a simple wooden wedge with angled back and cantilevered arms. Low to the ground and laid-back, it's perfect for cabin deck or poolside patio. The wedge base is old-growth Douglas Fir, oiled to bring out the grain and then coated with outdoor-grade polyurethane. All of the slats are various shop scraps of flooring and other off-cuts, bought in bulk bundles from the ReBuilding Exchange here in Chicago.
The chairs were made to break down flat, though I screwed them together for final assembly. You will need these materials: 1 8' 2" x 12" (per chair) 1 8' 2" x 4" Approx. 40 linear feet of assorted 3/4" material 8 2" x 3/8" hex-head bolts or a handful of galvanized 1-1/2" screws Galvanized (or, better, stainless steel) 1" and 2" screws Wood glue Outdoor-grade finish of your choice.
Recycled Fence Butcher Block Style Table. You will need to have wood, old wood preferably. Please don't tear down your neighbors fence, you could wait till you do that all important(honey-do) fence upgrade or wait for the neighbors to upgrade. Check with your local fencing company, they may let you have the panels they are replacing. Please enjoy my first instructable! You could use the standard butcher block standard of using glue, but I opt to use bolts instead.. Parts for one in-table: - 31x planks cut to roughly at 24" lengths - 2x 5/8"-11-2' all thread rods, 24" lengths - 4x 5/8"-11 nuts - 4x 5/8 flat washers - 4x wood screws - 60 grit sand paper - 100 grit sand paper - 150 grit sand paper - 320 grit sand paper or steel wool - polyurethane sealer - 1x 5 gallon bucket Tools needed: Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you get in trouble, if you tear down your neighbors fencing.
Shutter Upcycled (repurposed) into Magazine Rack.